I received a request recently to upgrade a client Exchange 2013 Server, which is the RTM version [15.0 (Build 516.32)] to SP1 [ Build no – 15.00.0847.032].

The set up was downloaded to the local Exchange Server at first. The latest updates were installed on the server. Tried the installation from the setup.exe file. However, the installation got stuck at 90 % of the readiness checks. Hence, had to re-initiate the unattended installation from command prompt which too resulted in error during the pre-requisite checks. The error reported was as follows :

However, I was unable to locate the keys in my server. Might be because I am using Windows Server 2012. Hence, had to manually create the registry keys and set the value as below:

Navigated to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft

Created the key Updates with a string value UpdateExeVolatile

The value of the string value was set to 0 [ indicates that system restart is not required ]

But still after performing the above changes,issue persisted. Since the office hours was above to start, I stopped working on the upgrade and checked the mail flow on the server. Unfortunately, due to my bad luck the mail flow was not working. 😦

The emails kept pending on the drafts folder in the mailbox. Following troubleshooting steps were performed on the server :

Checked the email queue in the Exchange server, but no pending emails were found